A total of 182 countries are set to be represented at Dubai’s Expo 2020

Dubai will submit its official plans for the hosting of the World Expo 2020 for formal approval by October 2015, but a leading architect of the the $7bn masterplan says the event will lead to the creation of 277,000 jobs and is aiming to cater to up to 300,000 visitors per day.

“In terms of capital expenditure, it is forecast that the Expo will cost around AED26bn ($7bn) and a lot of that will be for infrastructure, metro extension, highway infrastructure and expansion of telecoms,” Christopher Scott, director of investment and development at Dubai World Trade Centre and one of the chief architects of the successful Dubai bid, said at an event organised by the Australian Business Council Dubai.

Scott said around 247 pavilions would take part in the event, with 182 representing individual countries.

He said: “Each will have the option of their own pavilion, rather than all being in one large exhibition hall and to have their own identity and design.

“In terms of employment, we forecast that the Expo will [create] 277,000 jobs, almost all of those will be permanent jobs, although 80,000 will be temporary, in addition to 30,000 volunteers,” Scott said.

The masterplan is looking to build on the 73m visitors which attended the Shanghai Expo in 2010 and Scott believed the makeup of the Dubai event would be different as it will consist mainly of overseas, rather than domestic, visitors.

“The number of visitors has been a key part of the masterplan. The number of international visitors for the first time will far outweigh domestic visitors. The maximum number of visitors we expect on the site on any one day has been capped at 300,000 people,” he said.